Who is Park Geun-hye? Bilateral Relation Between South Korea and Ethiopia:

Park Geun-hye (born 2 February 1952) is the eleventh and current President of South Korea.

Park is the first woman to be elected as President in South Korea, and is serving the 18th presidential term. Park is also the firstfemale head of state in the history of Korea. Park is the first female president of a Northeast Asian nation, and is the first South Korean president to have been born a South Korean citizen.

Prior to her presidency, Park was the Chairwoman of the Conservative Grand National Party (GNP) from 2004 to 2006 and from 2011 to 2012 (the GNP changed its name to the "Saenuri Party" in February 2012). Park was also a member of the Korean National Assembly, and served four complete consecutive parliamentary terms as a constituency representative between 1998 and 2012. Park started her fifth term as a proportional representative in June 2012. Her father, Park Chung-hee, was the President of South Korea from 1962 to 1979.

In 2013 and 2014, Park was named the World's 11th Most Powerful Woman and the Most Powerful Woman in East Asia by Forbes Magazine's list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women. In 2014, Park was named the World's 46th Most Powerful Person by Forbes magazine's List of The World's Most Powerful People, the third highest South Korean on the list, after Lee Kun-hee and Lee Jae-yong.

Park was born on 2 February 1952, in Samdeok-dong of Jung-gu, Taegu, as the first child of Park Chung-hee, the 3rd president of South Korea who served between 1963 and 1979, and Yuk Young-soo. She has a younger brother, Park Ji-man, and a younger sister, Park Geun-ryeong. Park has never been married.

In 1953, Park's family moved to Seoul and she graduated from Seoul's Jangchung Elementary School and Sungshim (literal: Sacred Heart) Girls' Middle & High School in 1970, going on to receive a bachelor's degree in electronic engineering from Sogang University in 1974. Park briefly studied at the University of Grenoble, but left France following the assassination of her mother.

Park's mother was assassinated in the National Theater of Korea, Seoul, by Mun Se-gwang, a Japanese-born Korean, a sympathizer of North Korea, and a member of theGeneral Association of Korean Residents in Japan, on 15 August 1974. Park was regarded as first lady until 1979 when her father was also assassinated—by his own intelligence chief, Kim Jae-gyu—on 26 October 1979. During this time, activists who were political opponents of her father, claimed to be subject to arbitrary detention. Further, human rights were considered subordinate to economic development. In 2007, Park expressed regret at the treatment of activists during this period.

Park received honorary doctoral degrees from the Chinese Culture University, in Taiwan in 1987; Pukyong National University and KAIST in 2008; and Sogang University in 2010.

Multiple news sources, including the Korea Times and the American Council on Foreign Relations, reported that Park considers herself atheist, but is also influenced by Buddhism and Catholicism.

Bilateral Relation Between South Korea and Ethiopia:

Ethiopia and South Korea established their diplomatic relations in 1963 when the latter opened its Embassy in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia was one of the sixteen United Nations countries, which responded to the call of UN Security Council to preserve peace and security in Korean Peninsula during Korean war (1951-1953). At that time, Ethiopia contributed 6037 troops as part of UN forces. During the war, Ethiopian won all 235 of battles, but not a single of one of the 6,037 patriots went missing or became a prisoner of War (POWs).

Today, South Korea has managed to transform itself from a poor agrarian country into a leading industrial country in one generation (in half a century). Korea is now taken as a model country for its rapid economic development and dynamic democracy.

The relationship between Ethiopia and Korea has been enhanced by historic visits of the leaders of the two countries. The visits by former Prime Minister Mr. Mele Zenawi in 1998, 2010, 2011 and the Korean President Lee Myung-bak in 2011 have enhanced the historic relationship of the two countries. During the official visits, the two leaders had discussed on the ways to further expand the scope of bilateral cooperation in variety of fields including development, infrastructure, investment, trade and issues of mutual interest in the international arena. The two country leaders had also agreed to share Seoul’s “green growth” vision for environment-friendly growth.

They had also reiterated the two country's desire to further strengthen the existing relations in the economic, science and technology sectors. Ethiopia considered South Korea an important model for its economic development and social transformation. Considering the similarities on the economic development strategy of the two countries, the Korean economic miracle of industrialization was an export driven development policy and Ethiopia, as well follows an export driven strategy. Ethiopia stands to benefit considerably from the Korean experience. Currently, there are lots of exchanges of visits between the two countries by high level delegations at governmental and business communities’ level. It is also worth indicating that several agreements and memorandums of understandings have already been singed between the two countries in order to facilitate close cooperation in economic, social and cultural sectors.

In order to strengthen longstanding relations of the two countries, both sides have been working on enhancing their cooperation in trade and investment. Regarding the trade, although there have been exports of coffee, sesame and leather products from Ethiopia, it is believed that Ethiopia’s high value agricultural products such as coffee, sesame seeds, flowers, textiles, leather and livestock can be destined for the Korean market in greater numbers. Because of Korea’s position in the Asian market, Ethiopian products will be headed to other countries in the region as well. As far as investment is concerned, much of Ethiopia’s potential remains untapped especially in the areas of manufacturing namely textile, leather, and food processing and alike. Ethiopia’s vast raw material for industrial production, diverse mineral recourses and oil and gas potential have started to attract increasing foreign direct investments in recent years. To facilitate the cooperation, investment, trade, technology transfer, training, capacity building and exchange of experiences, Korean government has opened different offices such as KOICA, KOTRA and other offices and institutions in Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Embassy, which has been opened recently in Seoul and the South Korean Embassy in Addis Ababa have started to closely work together to further strengthen the trade and investment relations of the two countries. It is firmly believed that the two countries overall development cooperation particularly in the sectors such as investment, foreign trade, tourism, transfer of technologies and development assistances will be further enhanced in the future for mutual benefits.